gocchin

Really awesome feedback from everyone and this just shows what a mature and respectable forum this is. When I first saw this topic, I thought "uh oh, here comes the possibility of a flame war" but no, everyone has posted great points and been very very respectable. I applaud you all and it's one of the reasons why I love being here. Thanks.

Both are geared towards lower speed swingers... both are game improvement and forgiving. According to magazine tests, the ViQ MX has the slight edge in distance.

You've all touched on some really good points. I am a big JDM fan, you all know that. But whether JDM is better than American or vice versa, it is of course all subjective and personal. Even though my wife was born and raised in Japan and it's like my second home, I began playing golf using TM, Nike and Ping clubs. I then discovered JDM clubs and have not looked back. For me it was a totally different feel and as Barry above said, unlimited options. The workmanship, materials used and designs for me were out of this world. This is not to say that American companies don't make good products. When we are talking retail here, America and Japan make products for different price ranges really. Retail clubs in the Japanese market just plain cost more in general, and it shows in the workmanship, materials and options available. On the shafts side, it's amazing that even Japanese OEM's will sell clubs from factory with ALL the TOP of the line shafts as options, as well as loft, lie, face angle etc. Though I believe American OEM's are heading in that direction too since it's all about being fit for ones game, right now you can buy a Mizuno driver with every single high end shaft as an option from Mizuno, they will even adjust the LIE on your DRIVER. I don't think you can get that done in the USA. But maybe not everyone needs this kind of customization or all titanium drivers... or not everyone wants to pay for it. But yes there are many of us who are willing to pay for it and appreciate it. It's all about finding what's best for ourselves, and what we are willing to pay for.

Yeah it's the pic angle.... ^^

I know we all love pics... and it's always fun to take them so here we've got two battles brewing... Epon Technity 460ZR vs Epon Technica 420. Two Forged Titans ready to battle it out. The Technity 460 is definitely deeper faced but the 420 has a really nice head shape. The Technica 420 is 10* in loft but for some strange reason... looks less. Fans of smaller heads would definitely be a fan of this one. The crown is also a pearl like blue finish. The Technica 420 comes with Epon Technica stock graphite and came stickered with Length, Swingweight, Total Clubweight and finished CPM. Hopefully I can get out to the range tonight to hit them side by side. Second we have the awesome G-Field Leap-M vs Zomo's Z:Zero. Two neo-mallets that both weigh in at exactly 535g! I just had to see for myself how "bad" the Zomo is based on some negative comments I've read before... I will not writeup how it performs until after the Putter shootout this Saturday. The Leap has a SUS304 insert while the Zero is a bit crisper with a SUS303 insert. Zero is a bit more upright and comes with a Zomo Winn Grip and a very soft head cover. The Leap comes with an Iomic style grip and Nippon putter shaft, my Leap came with a Como!Come! Cherry Blossom cover. Pictures for visual comparisons (Technica has a normal black ferrule while the Technity 460 has the fancy one) :

I like things shiny... but they both look awesome!

I'm seriously addicted and I cannot stop. I may be in even more trouble after trying your matsumoto's... I love heavy heads with a soft feel...

I just want to know how easy it is to hit, as Mizuno claims...

Man you are temping a lot of people, myself included... you know I'm all about feel and forgiveness!

Who's got 002? Do you still have it Chris or any of the other gauge or g-field protos?

Very very nice grips... I have two sets here... can't decide which to use!

Actually they were hit indoors and out. I was able to hit Durham Driving range during two warm days a few weeks ago. Though the ground was not in prime condition. Will continue to test... First initial test was just feel and finish...

As posted on Inpakuto.com: Well I got the 52/58 set if Epon Model X finished in the beautiful NiCr20 back in December from Tourspecgolf.com. They were very limited and works of art and at first I did not think I would ever play them. Jeff over at Forthegolfer.ca shafted them up with very smooth Nippon NSPro 1050GH shafts and adjusted them to match my lie specs. The sat in my home office for about 2 months before I decided it would be a waste to let these babies sit. People on the forum were raving about how great they were so I decided that I would hit them afterall. (pictured up top are 52/6 and 58/10 with my new Scratch PW... these will be the wedges in my bag this year!) A couple of months have passed and with a few warm days here and there I've been able to hit about 100 balls with each wedge and what can I say, feel is amazing and the finish!!! NiCr20 is very durable. The wedges, cleaned after each use still look like new! Absolutely beautiful and easy to hit. What more can you ask for?? I'm thinking if the Inpakuto putter day goes well, it may be time for an Inpakuto wedge day. There are just way too many good wedges out there, from Epon, Fourteen, Gold's, Tourstage, Yururi and many many more. Putters and wedges, hey, short game is everything right? Read on to see what awesome shape the wedges are still in after 100 balls each! Beautiful wedge design, simple clean looks and attention to detail and what a finish. Nice sharp grooves look as good as new even after 100 balls each!! I will report back when I hit 10,000 like idrive did! ^^

I didn't grab May's Golf Classic!!! Only got Golf Gear, Golf Digest and Waggle for May! Let me see if I can get it.... Though I think one of the three did do a feature on new balls.

Hehe I didn't mean to say Matsumoto was obscure... what I meant was it wasn't quite as mainstream as some of the bigger brands. Yes anserfreak was the king of golf blogging in Japan but I think it was Chris who told me he got a job and really cut back on blogging. Grindstudio looks amazing... I think I will check it out a bit more... Look at the process on this page: http://www.grindstudio.com/grind_operation/index.html and some of the wedges here: http://www.grindstudio.com/art_of_grinding/index.html

With help from TSG, I'll be holding a putter demo/shootout day at an Indoor golf center here in Toronto next Saturday. Six testers of all golfing levels (scratch golfer to 20 handicap) will do the rounds with all putters on hand to give feedback and choose their gamer. Interestingly, the scratch golfer is a 14 year old girl who just shot a 2 under par 72 at one of Canada's toughest courses (she's off at the beginning of May to St. Andrews Scotland!) and I'm not saying the 20 handicap is me.... but it might be. We'll have a certified clubfitter too as one of the testers. Should be lots of fun. There will be pictures and reports on Inpakuto.com and here at TSG next weekend. Putters in play... (not finalized yet) G-Field Premium Zone #0 G-Field Premium Zone #1 G-Field Premium Zone #2 G-Field Premium Zone M2 Plus G-Field Leap-M Gauge Design The One Gauge Design Tera Gauge Design Tubu Zomo Z:Zero Gold's Factory M402 Prototype Yururi Prototype Bridgestone PX-2 Hiro Matsumoto (To be decided) Hiro Matsumoto (To be decided) Honma (To be decided) Mizuno Bettinardi C-02 Taylormade Japan RSI Daytona

Good feedback. It's consistent with the tests most Japanese magazines have conducted. Carry with the best of them but quite a bit more roll and very very smooth.

yourpressed, any feedback on how it played? Did the BA not fit your swing? As Chris mentioned the shaft actually does require tipping to a certain degree to achieve proper CPM. If he didn't tip it, it's possible it's way too soft for you.

Hope you have a good one and may your drives go longer and be more accurate than ever this year!!

Interesting, that's the first one I've seen where the logos are on the silver side and the colored side is blank. With all the shafts TSG received, they are all logo on the color side and either blank white or silver as is shown on the Roddio site. I know that Roddio can do custom jobs but I didn't think any direct retail ones would be like that.

This news just in from Tourspecgolfer! Chris has found out through Bridgestone/Tourstage that a new X-Drive GR Driver will be released in June followed by X-Drive GR Fairway woods. These will be geared towards average golfers with more forgiveness and larger faces. Standard shafts for the driver will include a new and improved Tourstage XD-S60 shaft or the Rombax 6X07! Driver will be availabe in 9.5 and 10.5 lofts and fairway woods in 15, 18, 21, asnd 24 lofts! Will be interesting to see once more details come out what the actually changes are between this X-Drive and the current 2007 line.

Plans have changed and my Roddio is now going into a PRGR 502 Silver... we'll have to wait for the driver to get here before I give you guys some feedback... (^_^)

I pulled my Crafting The One today to send for refinishing and was disappointed when I threw it on my digital scale to have it come in at 338g. I was hoping it was closer to 345-350g range. Anyone else ever check out the headweight of their Then One or The Balde? I thought they would all be closer to 350g...

There was an MG611 on ebay.... maybe I should stick to finding the PRGR 502 Silver...

I'm just curious about Honma Beres, anyone ever hit any of their drivers? Forgiving as they claim? Any feedback would be great. Thanks. T